This invention relates generally to plain bearings and, more particularly, to bearing elements having surfaces in sliding contact with a housing or other bearing elements.
Due to the sliding contact of plain bearings, the bearing elements must provide wear resistance as well as resistance to fracture. Typically, in applications such as spherical plain bearings, bearing elements are machined of steel and heat treated, with or without carburizing, to obtain a desired surface hardness. Grinding to final shape and treating with phosphate, molybdenum disulfide or other material for lubricity may be required after hardening.
The machining and grinding steps of such manufacturing methods add significant cost to the plain bearing, particularly when the bearing element has spherical or other non-cylindrical surfaces with tight dimensional tolerances. Heat treatment, carburizing and other surface treatment steps require considerable process time, adding to the manufacturing cost. In addition, alloy steel may be required, adding material cost and making machining more difficult.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present bearing elements having sliding contact surfaces. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.